Judi Bari vs. FBI April 25, 2002
\r\nDefending Our Civil Rights<\/b><\/p>\r\n\r\n
Thursday Media Conference on Week’s Highlights:<\/p>\r\n\r\n
* FBI Bomb School and “The Final Exam”
\r\n* Doyle Admits: “No Evidence of Damage” on Car’s Back Seat
\r\n* Sena “Not All That Interested” in Investigating Tips
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Contact: Jean Eisenhower, Kathy Glass, Steve Christianson at 510\/663-6330<\/p>\r\n\r\n
OAKLAND, CA -- Background on the FBI’s “Bomb School” will be part of this\r\nweek’s highlights discussed with the media by plaintiffs’ attorneys after\r\ncourt on Thursday, approximately 2:00 pm, in front of the Oakland Federal\r\nCourthouse. In addition, a limited number of videotape copies will be\r\nprovided to the media of the FBI tape played in court on Monday that\r\ncontains the voice of someone who announces enthusiastically at the bomb\r\nscene, “This is it! This is it, don’t you think?! This is the final exam!”<\/p>\r\n\r\n
FBI Special Agent and Bomb Technician Frank Doyle’s Monday testimony was\r\nriddled with lapses of memory and contradictions to his previous testimony\r\nin deposition, to others’ testimony, and to written reports. Regarding the\r\nbombed car’s back seat, brought into the courtroom for the jury to view,\r\nwhich he’d earlier stated had the bomb placed a foot or so away from it, he\r\nadmitted, “I don’t see what I would term bomb damage.” Doyle claimed never\r\nto have said the bomb was “behind” the driver’s seat, but chose language\r\nnever before heard in this case: “on the axis of the seat back.” He also\r\nreiterated his deposition testimony that Judi’s guitar case was “blown to\r\npieces,” while a photo of the mostly-intact guitar case, beside the car at\r\nthe bomb scene, remained displayed on the video screen for the jury.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
In FBI Special Agent Philip Sena’s testimony on Wednesday, the courtroom\r\nwas shocked to hear him dismiss his failure to follow up on leads given him\r\nby Darryl Cherney, based on the death threats Judi had received, or to even\r\nwrite them down in any record. Though he would later admit to be the case\r\nagent in charge, he said, “I wasn’t in charge of the case, didn’t know what\r\nwas going on, and furthermore, I wasn’t all that interested.”<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Wednesday morning’s testimony began with Lisa Bari, daughter of Judi, who\r\nwas nine years old when the assassination attempt occurred. She testified\r\nthat her mother was “definitely afraid” and “hated having her name\r\ndirtied.” She also said that she was “harassed all the time about it” by\r\nchildren at school. Regarding her mother, she testified, “The more she\r\nlearned about it, the more she was amazed and disgusted that it could\r\nhappen.” Lisa was not allowed, by court agreement, to complete a sentence\r\nreferring to other FBI repression of political activists.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Utah Phillips, folk singer and storyteller who spent two days previous to\r\nthe bombing with Judi, charmed the audience with his depictions of her as a\r\nbrilliant and charismatic organizer, a non-violence activist “who\r\nunderstood the concepts,” and a singer of original songs that he went out\r\nof his way to tape and learn.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
FBI Bomb School Background:<\/b><\/p>\r\n\r\n
The FBI’s “Bomb School,” held a month before the car bombing, included a\r\nfield day in which cars were blown up with bombs under them and inside\r\nthem, overseen by Frank Doyle. The bombing was conducted on clear-cut land\r\nowned by Louisiana-Pacific Timber Company near Eureka, where the head of\r\nsecurity was a former bomb school student of Doyle’s, Frank Wigginton.\r\nWhen a bomb went off a couple of weeks later at L-P’s Cloverdale Mill, no\r\nlaw enforcement agencies conducted any investigation.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
When the bomb went off in Judi’s car, Doyle was coincidentally in the area\r\nand arrived soon after with some of his students. This lawsuit charges the\r\nFBI with failing to gather any information on people other than those they\r\nwere intent on framing. For instance, no fingerprints were taken from the\r\nmostly-intact bomb at the Cloverdale Mill, or from the sign found with it.\r\nWhen the “Lord’s Avenger” letter arrived, describing both bombs and\r\nclaiming credit for both, it was dusted for fingerprints, but they were\r\nnever compared or analyzed. Darryl Cherney describes Louisiana-Pacific\r\nTimber Company as having been, prior to the bombing, “Judi Bari’s number\r\none adversary” in protecting the ancient redwoods.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
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Our courtroom artist’s drawings are available as color and b&w graphics.\r\n<\/p>\n","contact":"media@judibari.org","link":"judibari.org","address":"","phone":"510-663-6330","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"* FBI Bomb School and \u201cThe Final Exam\u201d\r\n* Doyle Admits: \u201cNo Evidence of Damage\u201d on Car\u2019s Back Seat\r\n* Sena \u201cNot All That Interested\u201d in Investigating Tips","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2002\/04\/bari_v._fb.html","filesize":"4.4 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2002\/04\/16175.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}